Издания и произведения

Тhe Tony Award—winning play that soars at the intersection of science and art, Copenhagen is an explosive re-imagining of the mysterious wartime meeting between two Nobel laureates to discuss the atomic bomb.

In 1941 the German physicist Werner Heisenberg made a clandestine trip to Copenhagen to see his Danish counterpart and friend Niels Bohr. Their work together on quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle had revolutionized atomic physics. But now the world had changed and the two men were on opposite sides in a world war. Why Heisenberg went to Copenhagen and what he wanted to say to Bohr are questions that have vexed historians ever since. In Michael Frayn’s ambitious, fiercely intelligent, and daring new play Heisenberg and Bohr meet once again to discuss the intricacies of physics and to ponder the metaphysical—the very essence of human motivation.

У п'єсі описано зустріч двох визначних фізиків XX ст. — Нільса Бора та Вернера Гайзенберґа — у Копенгаґені восени 1941 р. Об'ємна Післямова й Післямова до післямови дають картину подій, пов'язаних з відкриттям атомної фізики у 1930—1940-х рр., які привели, зокрема, до створення ядерної зброї. Розкрито суперечливість поглядів безпосередніх учасників тих подій і всіх, хто займався їх дослідження. Роздуми героїв дають змогу людині будь-якого фаху відчути себе втаємниченим у пошуку розв'язання вічної дилеми вибору, вибору між людяністю і професіоналізмом, між співчуттям і амбіціями.
Для всіх, хто цікавиться питаннями моралі в науці, історією Другої світової війни, а також історією фізики XX ст.

Copenhagen is a play based on a real event which occurred in 1941: a meeting between the physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg and explores the moral questions about scientists working on nuclear weapons. The play debuted in London and later won the Tony Award during its Broadway run.

Methuen Drama Student Editions are expertly annotated texts of a wide range of plays from the modern and classic repertoires.

Key Features:

• Chronology of the playwright's life and work.
• Synopsis of the plot.
• Introduction chapter with commentary on themes, context, characters, language, key words and phrases and play structure.
• Questions, notes and a bibliography for further reading.
• Text notes to explain unfamiliar terms in the play text.

In 1941 the German physicist Werner Heisenberg made a strange trip to Copenhagen to see his Danish counterpart, Niels Bohr. They were old friends and close colleagues, and they had revolutionised atomic physics in the 1920s with their work together on quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle. But now the world had changed, and the two men were on opposite sides in a world war. The meeting was fraught with danger and embarrassment, and ended in disaster.

Why the German physicist Heisenberg went to Copenhagen in 1942 and what he wanted to say to the Danish physicist Bohr are questions which have exercised historians of nuclear physics ever since. In Michael Frayn's new play Heisenberg meets Bohr and his wife Margrethe once again to look for the answers, and to work out, just as they had once worked out the internal functioning of the atom, how we can ever know why we do what we do.

Она была написана в 1998 году и сразу же получила широкое признание: в 1999 году в Париже удостоена Мольеровской премии, а чуть позже - премии "Tony" как лучшее англоязычное произведение 2000 года. В пьесе всего трое действующих лиц и практически никакого действия. И, тем не менее, это поистине захватывающее произведение. Пьеса повествует о реальном историческом событии: в сентябре 1941 года, когда победа Германии на Восточном фронте казалась делом нескольких недель, молодой блестящий немецкий физик, лауреат Нобелевской премии Вернер Гейзенберг приехал в оккупированный Копенгаген к своему учителю Нильсу Бору. Эта встреча - один из ключевых…

Benedict Cumberbatch, Greta Scacchi and Simon Russell Beale star in Michael Frayn's award-winning play about the controversial 1941 meeting between physicists Bohr and Heisenberg. Copenhagen, Autumn 1941.

The two presiding geniuses of quantum physics, Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg meet for the first time since the breakout of war. Danish physicist Bohr and his wife, Margrethe, live in Nazi-occupied Denmark; their visitor, Heisenberg, is German, the two old friends, now on opposing sides have between them the ability to change the course of history.

Frayn's Tony award-winning play imagines the three characters re-drafting the events of 1941 in an attempt to make sense of them. With Greta Scacchi as Margrethe Bohr, Simon Russell Beale as Niels Bohr and Benedict Cumberbatch as Werner Heisenberg. This new version of Copenhagen is adapted for radio and directed by Emma Harding.